Monday morning, Tom needed to get up at 4:30 to go jogging - physical fitness test is today. x_x

Monday afternoon, Mark kept trying to fall asleep before dinner, and during dinner, and after dinner. We managed to keep him awake until his actual bedtime, as past experience has shown if allowed to go to sleep that early he'll wake up fresh and bouncy when we're trying to sleep.

He did not wake up fresh and bouncy while we were sleeping.

Instead he woke up screaming, feverish, and covered in vomit at midnight. x_x

Woke up several more times before dawn; threw up shortly after we got some children's advil down his throat around 6 am. :(

He spent most of Tuesday listless and drowsy on the couch; threw up a couple times at wide intervals; had no real appetite. :( Went to bed the usual time; protested more advil but drank it; and fell promptly asleep.

Jack, on the other hand, spent most of Tuesday afternoon bright-eyed, bouncy, and loud - until around four pm. Then he became mildly feverish, and around 4:30 he fell asleep on the couch. Would not rouse for dinner time, didn't notice when we carried him to bed, and while he sorta noticed having a fresh diaper applied, as soon as he felt his fuzzy blanket against his skin, he borrowed in and zonked out again. Did not wake until 6 this morning.

Today, Mark is mildly feverish and whiny/clingy as hell, but his appetite's back, and he's moving around mostly normally. Jack is ever so slightly feverish, but his appetite's raring to go, and so he is. Loud, bouncy, and very very goofy.

I kept them both home from school today, but they are driving me bananas. I guess we'll see if a small amount of Dr. Pepper has enough caffeine to aggravate my IBS...

Around nine o'clock, on the way to the pharmacy to pick up my prozac refill, I get a call from Mark's school.

He bit one of the special ed teachers on the arm. >_< Apparently he was thrown off kil-ter by his primary teacher being out sick and replaced by a substitute, and when he tried to do a runner, the special ed aide tried to redirect him - and got chomped for her effort.

The poor woman was sent home for the day, and I was asked to please come collect my child. >_<

I saw the photo. He drew blood and broke skin in two near-perfect semicircles, as well as bruising between the top and bottom teeth marks.

Yeah, that was a FUN day. And me on the caffeine wagon because internet research suggests it tips IBS towards the diarrhea side of the condition.

He was able to go back to school today. We talked to the head of the ABA therapy service who works with Mark, and in future we plan to raise moderate hell at attempted suspensions - he has an IEP, and his severity of autism means that suspensions do not make the slightest beneficial impact on his behavior. We have legal avenues to protest if they do this again, and to work on ways and means to prevent further incidents.

The weekend went better. Did some shopping, got work done on my cross stitch, and only ordinary outbreaks of goofiness from the boys.

Then, last night happened.

Mark went to bed at his usual time, and fell asleep promptly.

He woke up around 12:30 am. x_x Had to be chased back into bed multiple times. At one point I noticed he'd turned on the seldom-used light under the kitchen cabinets. I went over to the switch - and stepped in a puddle of stickiness, which proved to be most of the contents of my vanilla and almond extract bottles. Those are going on the list of things to store in the closet or laundry room at night. If he hadn't already run upstairs, I'd have made him help me clean the goop up with paper towel.

Last time I chased him back into bed was around 3 am.

I went back upstairs shortly after Mark and Jack got on the bus, and while I couldn't quite fall asleep, I got some much needed rest. Going to bed early tonight.

Birthday luncheon involved french fries and chicken nuggets. Birthday dinner will involve BLTs and potato chips. At some point I'm making cupcakes, too. We'll try cutting them into neat chunks to see if that will encourage the birthday boy and his equally finicky brother to eat them.

For now, I am working on the caffeination process, so i can bake without forgetting the baking soda or something. Poor Jack woke up with massive gassy tummy around 3 am, screaming in pain. I stayed with him til nearly five am - and then Tom's alarm went off around 6. x_x

We bought Jack some horse toys, and Auntie Steph has something coming in the mail for him too. I hope he likes them. ^_^

Both times he woke up screaming and required cuddling and soothing, poor boy. :(

Then as I was getting ready to slip out of his room the second time.... Mark comes stumbling into the open doorway, soaking wet. :( Changed him completely; changed his bed and laid a towel over the wet spot in the mattress, under the sheet; crawled into *his* bed this time and tried to get back to sleep.

This did not last.

Ended up sprawled on the couch with boy and husband, snarking at the misogyny and feminist RAGE inducing writing in an episode of Curious George which teaches Professor Wiseman, a scientific genius and woman that coking is really chemistry, tee hee hee.

x_x

I leave you guys with Rockapella performing Zombie Jamboree, which sadly youTube does not have in classic Carmen Sandiego version.

Last night, while Tom was in bed (ridiculously long day, much of it spent on the insanely hot flightline doing press-related activities for the MOFFS being deployed for fire abatement), and I was downstairs washing the boys' cuppies and preparing to lock up...

Mark, who'd had a very rough day and only got *worse* after an impromptu nap, if you can believe it...

Decided it was a grand time to demonstrate his ability to climb on top of the half-wall at the head of the stairs, then jump to the landing. Over and over and over.

x_x

He's fine. It was only the landing the wall's attached to, three feet below, not the one midway up the stairs. But for safety's sake, we decided I'd stay awake in Mark's room til he fell asleep, and then sleep in Mark's bed in case he woke up in the middle of the night, or before we were awake this morning, and decided he wanted to try for the landing several yards below and away after all.

x_x He took HOURS to fall asleep. And once he was? He spent most of the night migrating from one end of the bed to the other while fast asleep.

Adding insult to injury, he was wide awake again at 7 am.

Tom's going to Lowes tonight for lumber and paint to construct a barricade across the part Mark can reach. He'll paint the lumber tonight; I'll sleep in Mark's room again - on the air mattress this time, thank you very much; and tomorrow he'll install the barricade. We're past the point of caring if Base Housing bitches about the screw holes in the wall when we eventually PCS. Mark's safety is more important.

Tom usually leaves for work around 7 am, after reveille and the Star Spangled Banner finish playing. If Mark is downstairs before then but I am not, he sets Mark up with milk and cheerios and some tv, and locks the door behind him.

I got up around 7 and took my shower. Came downstairs a little bit ago and found Mark screaming at random intervals while sitting on the couch watching PBS - no visible injuries - and two chunks of varnished wood with one raw edge on each, on the rug by the sink.

They appear to be the front for the bottom drawer of the row to the right of the dishwasher, split in half horizontally across the middle. The split goes right through the holes to mount it onto the drawer, and the screws are still on place on the drawer itself. I don't know WHAT he was trying to do or how he broke it, but he's not getting triscuits for a while.

Cold feet, progressing to cold ankles and calves and back again, plus cold upper arms, requiring cocooning in heavy blankets for several hours until surface body temperature resumed normal. That's pretty much par for the course with the gastro issues, but this time? No digestive issues at all. Just congestion from right side of nose to right sinuses to right ear, plus raw painful back of throat, and lots of fatigue.

I am beyond glad that this morning was the last of Tom's early-morning-duty for the week, and hopefully for MANY weeks to come.

Going to retrieve a finally-awake Jack from his room, and then gulp down sweet sweet Dr. Pepper.

Getting back on the caffeine wagon and working on my pitiful exercise regimen can wait til next week.

Added bonus sleep deprivation points due to Mark audibly not going to sleep until nearly 11 pm last night, and thus making it necessary for me to stay up and keep him reasonably in line and out of the downstairs bathroom. (Why he keeps bypassing the upstairs bathroom, which is RIGHT ACROSS THE HALL from his bedroom, I do not at all grok.)

So. Recap of weekend.

Sunday had strong wind gusts and my stomach was still a trifle fragile. So instead of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, we went on a little road trip to the Florissant Fossil Beds to enjoy the area and obtain a free year pass for military families to National Parks, Monuments, etc. Nice easy drive, just enough walking to give a sickly domestic goddess and her offspring some exercise, but not enough to overtire me or them.

Or so I thought.

Mark started freaking out as soon as we got out of the car at the monument. No idea why. We ended up just walking the shortest of the trail loops, the one that winds around giant petrified redwood stumps, most of which are semi-protected by permanent metal awnings and semi-held-together by large metal bands. Sigh.

Jack, on the other hand, was positively angelic during the walk, despite having some lingering diaper rash from his recent bouts of nocturnal tummy troubles.

Tom got our pass, and we loaded back in the car for some exploratory driving.

Based on the tv ads, I was expecting Cripple Creek to be a decent sized tourist town, around the size of Woodland Park, with several casinos around the size of the Ho Chunk Casino in downtown Milwaukee or the one in Council Bluffs Iowa where we went for a seafood buffet the evening after Tom and I were married. Not as big as Aspen or other major skiing destinations, but certainly not as small as Piedmont MO.

Ha!

It is TINY. The main drag is very very well-maintained and has plenty of historic buildings which house little restaurants and tourist shops and such, but it is a very very tiny main drag indeed, and the town around it is tiny as well. We barely noticed the casinos.

We did not bother getting out of the car. Mark was still in freakout mode, and it simply wasn't tempting enough a walk.

We continued on the scenic mining camp loop, through the adjacent small towns that once were mining camps. Quite a few of the mines are still active; just mechanized. The air reeks. Most of the houses in the area, both modern and historic, were well away from the active mines. The road had some really nice views in those areas, but overall, not on our list of potential places to get a post-Air Force house.

***

Both boys have been in active "velociraptor testing the fences" mode lately. We've caught both boys in what appeared to be active collusion to literally test the fences, having dragged their wooden rocking horse off the porch and into a corner of the yard not viewable from any of the windows. They both were grabbing onto the rim of the fence, one foot apiece on a cross-beam of the fence, one foot dangling and trying to decide if it wanted to rest on the horse or rise to the cross-beam. :;face-palm::

Jack on several occasions has been caught on one of the corner fence posts, perched like a tiny gargoyle, feet tight under him, knees drawn up, and hands gripping the fence rim as he debated what to do next. x_x He's also taken to throwing stuff over the fence - like his and Mark's beloved straw cups. Since neither of them are cooperating with drinking from regular cups yet, this is problematic.

Mark figured out how to remove the little rubbery plastic bits that hooked onto the adhesive mounts of the fridge and freezer locks. x_x We finally found them in the freezer under a bag of chicken nuggets.

I suggested to Tom we use some of our spare cabinet locks, the kind that hook over knob handles or through bar handles, over the existing adhesive mounts, and if they wouldn't fit, drill small holes through the mounts for the loops to feed into.

He face-palmed and told me he'd thrown the extra locks out a couple weeks back when he was cleaning out the garage, because he assumed we didn't need them and they were just taking up space.

At least he hasn't taken to holding stuff over bonfires and saying "Honey, we don't need this, right?" as he throws it in, like his dad.

So I bought a new set of locks, along with some 3M adhesive hooks in case the locks didn't fit and the drilling holes plan fell through.

Tom drilled the holes, and at least as of this morning, Mark can't circumvent them. \o/

Here's hoping he doesn't turn into a tiny Tony Stark or Bruce Banner and find a way to dissolve the extremely strong adhesive... ^_^;;;;;

Mark has also been caught on numerous occasions standing on the kitchen counters and attempting to bat at Tom's collection of shotglasses from around the world, displayed on the top of the upper cabinets. We're going to get some bubble wrap and put them into storage.

Jack's been trying to use the wooden rustic-style potato bin as a climbing tool to get onto the kitchen island. He's also been using the folding chair and the riding dumptruck as climbing tools for the backyard fence. We're running out of places to relocate things.

Zodlings! ::amused fist shake::

***

I should and eventually will do some quick reviews of my recent booksquee-ing. Not today, though. I'm close to needing an extra Dr. Pepper, and the boys are demanding to be let out into the yard. I can't let them out there unsupervised anymore, given their joint fascination with fence-climbing.

Two days of the now-usual lightheadedness, odd pains behind the ribs and various abdominal locations, dry heaves, bowel issues, and difficulty eating. Tom was able to stay home from work yesterday to watch the boys, for which I am deeply grateful.

I'm feeling much better today, and was able to drink ginger ale yesterday without problems, so I'm debating if I should drink a little Dr. Pepper to give me the energy I need to get through today. Sarah needs her base pass updated, and the ESY lady needs a pass this afternoon. Other than that, I am staying home with the boys, and I am NOT resuming normal domestic goddess services until tomorrow. Dishes and diapers are a necessity. Everything else can wait. :p

(If I were feeling better, I'd stay up late and watch the WI recall election returns online with snacks and caffeine. ;_; Instead I am sensibly going to bed early.)

I cobbled together an AWESOME dessert with the filling from Vegan Pie In The Sky's cherry pie recipe and the topping from their apple crisp recipe. Tom and I adored it; sadly, the finicky Zodlings did not. :p

Between Jack deciding to be audibly awake to the point of bouncing off the walls of his bedroom at ungodly hours, and Tom's need to be awake at 4 am for morning duty, this has been a terrible week for attempting to resume reduced soda consumption or at least decaffeinating myself. :p

Next week bodes no better, despite Tom's morning duty ending Friday, as we have determined to get Jack cloth underwear on payday and start potty-training in earnest. x_x

If Tom winds up going on *another* Caribbean TDY this summer, as he did last, and which is possibly in the works, I am SO going on a massive book-shopping spree of squee. ;p (This is in addition to the book-squee-spree I already intend for payday.)

Bleah. I do not care for the aftertaste or temporary side effects of methacholine.

But it wasn't all that hard, and certainly not something I'll ever be phobic of experiencing again.

Test results will be available in about two weeks, as the tech who administered the test is not rated to interpret the readings. I'm to make an appt. with my primary doctor for after that date, to discuss the rests.

Did a small amount of visible-spot mopping and a grand total of four squats while pushing Jack-jack on the swings Tuesday.

Paying for it. Itai. Actually took pain meds last night, and will probably do it again in a sec. I need my max. allotment of spoons for the end-of-year picnic Jack's class is having at Memorial Park. (Mark's is having a potluck *in the classroom*. Not even on the pre-k playground. :p I called him in sick and cancelled his bus.)

Reading stuff over at John Scalzi's blog, since LJ's karenhealey linked there yesterday and now the awesome nagaina has as well. Good stuff; good patience on the part of those commenters willing to help educate people who aren't just Basic Social Justice 101, but in the remedial section.

I personally think a better analogy, at least for USA-raised nerds of my own vintage, would be Oregon Trail, not an RPG on various difficulty settings. But that's a fairly small subset of the people who need this analogy, so not all that useful for addressing the larger problem.

After the picnic, which we will bail out of at the first sign of meltdowns or otherwise unacceptable Zodling shenanigans, we will probably swing by Burger King for fries for the boys, and then on to Walmart for the belated payday shopping.

Tom found Thor on DVD for only ten bucks at Sam's Club, and Hulk (the version being used for Avengers continuity) for nearly as cheap somewhere else.

Guess what we did most of this afternoon and evening. :D

Cutting in case I'm not the only one so woefully far behind on these movies. I am caffeinated and in the middle of a severe outbreak of fangirling, so it's kinda raw and stream of consciousness.( Read more... )

Then after that we watched the "season finale" of The Finder, which is de facto the series finale since it just got cancelled. After only one season of awesomeness.

Damn you Fox.

Though not as thoroughly as my husband wishes to damn you, which I will get to in a moment.

We spent several minutes shaking our fists at the ceiling and cursing Fox for the note on which they ended it, although it IS better than what happened to Alien Nation before the tv movie (ten years later, Tom tells me - I don't remember the series finale very well, nor that there even WAS a movie) or what happened to Sam in Quantum Leap.

(My personal canon denies the existence of the damnable final moments of the QL final episode, along with the existence of midichlorians and any Earthsea books beyond the trilogy. )

Then Tom went to bed, as it will be my turn to sleep in tomorrow. :D

Then I went on Facbeook to write a capslock of rage complaint to my friends. (Not a rant on the FB page for The Finder. I am not calm enough to write a useful complaint to them just at present.)

Then Tom lumbered back downstairs, in search of a glass of water - and to attempt to persuade me to join his proposed letter writing campaign. Not to Fox, but to the Pope. To get the Fox execs responsible for cancelling The Finder excommunicated.

My cooperation was deemed vital because I am Catholic and would therefore know what the Vatican equivalent of Provost Marshall in charge of excommunication requests would be.

I explained to my atheist husband that I didn't know what on earth a Provost Marshall is, and in any event the only person I can say completely and unequivocally is deserving of eternity in Hell, which is what Tom assumes is the automatic result of excommunication, is Hitler. (I believe what actually happens is probably more complex, and also doesn't work on non-Catholics, as they aren't members of the club to begin with.) Cancelling The Finder pisses me off mightily, but Tom does that on a regular basis, and I certainly don't want HIM going to Hell. Sending stupid tv execs there seems a trifle extreme, even to a fangirl like me.

He called me a 'Finder-caust denier". I made him go back to bed.

***

I get to sleep in tomorrow, barring further Zodling poopocalypses. (Jack this time, while we were trying to watch Thor - and in poor Mark's room no less. We are buckling down on getting that boy toilet-trained the week after school's out and Tom's parents come visit. Oy vey.)

Tom bought me roses, and tomorrow is making bacon and eggs with fresh kaiser rolls with which to make breakfast sammiches. I get to see Avengers at 1:15 - already bought tickets online. And we're getting stuffed-crust pizza for the adults' dinner. \o/

Around midnight, just as I was getting ready to stow the folded and unfolded laundry alike into the laundry room for Future!Kim to deal with, and go to bed....

Mark crept downstairs, looking groggy and confused.

I led him back to bed, tucked him in with kisses and his giant blue stuffed monkey, and went back to finish locking up.

Ten minutes later, Mark returns, in full-fledged freakout.

I led him back to bed, and this time climbed in with him, to calm him down. The noise levels woke up my nauseated husband, who wandered downstairs, groggily assuming Mark had come down and found the house dark and empty. Instead Tom found a mostly lit house, and spent a good ten minutes dry-heaving into the sink. :( He eventually wandered back upstairs, found us in Mark's room, and we talked a bit as Mark started relaxing.

Tom went back to bed. I stayed put bc Mark wasn't falling back asleep nor calm enough to leave.

Around 1:30 am I gave up trying to get him to sleep and went to bed myself. Argh.

I don't know when he DID fall asleep, but Tom found him snoring on the couch with Monkey around quarter to six, and he was audibly awake through our upstairs bedroom door by 6:30.

Depending on the efficacy of my morning Dr. Pepper, I may have to get school party treats at the grocery store, and bring along the Mark-safe chocolate chip cookies I already have on hand for tomorrow's event.